A wave of cow mutilations occurred in the U.S. throughout the 1970s, and at least one of those mutilations happened in Merced County.

Gary Sorg, a retired Merced County Sheriff deputy at the time, remembers responding to take the report of the strange cow mutilation, which occurred on Central Avenue at a privately owned ranch in Hilmar, CA, in November 1975.

In a phone interview with Merced Daily, Sorg said, “What was so weird about the cow mutilation is that one eye, one ear, and all the sex organs were removed with no blood around or near the cow. The cuts on the cow were procession cuts that seemed to be done by a professional.”

According to Sorg, there was no evidence of forced entry onto the property or tire tracks near the area. However, something interesting may be a link to what the owners heard 1-2 days before they found the cow. Sorg recalls the owners at the time hearing what sounded like a mixture of a jet engine and helicopter while in their house for roughly 30 seconds to a minute but didn’t think anything of it.

After a few months had passed, Sorg, out of curiosity, inquired about the case with a sergeant detective. The answer he received was that a brand inspector investigated the incident and claimed coyotes were to blame. Sorg, a long-time deer hunter, says there’s no way coyotes nor any known animal did that.

Sorg’s only explanation for the cow’s mutilation due to information he gathered for the report was that it had been taken from above somehow, possibly operated on, and then dropped back off on the property.

The latest documented case of cow mutilations similar to the Hilmar incident took place in Texas in 2023.

If you have any information about this incident or any unusual incidents, please contact [email protected].